Overview
The Bible uses spiders as metaphors for weakness and false security. Despite their industriousness, spiders and their webs represent things that cannot be trusted or relied upon, particularly when they symbolize human works or the schemes of the wicked.
Key Scriptures
"The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in kings' palaces" (Proverbs 30:28, NASB). This acknowledges the spider's surprising ability to access even the most secure places, yet with implicit limitation.
"His confidence is fragile, and what he trusts in is a spider's web" (Job 8:14, NIV). Job describes how the wicked place their trust in things as insubstantial as a spider's web.
"They weave the spider's web, but their webs will not become garments, nor will they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands" (Isaiah 59:5, NASB). Here Isaiah condemns the wicked whose efforts are as useless as spider webs.
Application
Christians should examine whether they are trusting in their own works or in God's righteousness, remembering that all human effort apart from Christ is as fragile as a spider's web.